4/21/2006

Yeah I am ranting but this is a shining example of what has to change NOW: I'm watching infotainment news and the discussion gets to high gas prices. Then the Democratic strategist gets on to talk about whether or not the high price of gas will be something the Democrats can use to their advantage in the elections. Self serving, much? What the hell is that? Thats as bad as talking to a focus group before answering a damn question! Hey, fatcats, want to figure out how to use any other problems for campaign currency? Excuse me punks but when last I checked WE were paying your salary to solve problems and run government, not sit around all day trying to figure out how to use domestic challenges for your own gain! Get off your asses and fight to raise CAFE standards, get off your asses and go come up with the solutions and leadership we pay you for. I am not an energy expert but you do not PAY me to be. If you don't get your shit together, you might need to forego some of this endless allowance we, the taxpayers, keep giving you. Go play your poll number games on your own time-all of you. You people are on America's damn clock, shut up.

14 comments:

Yeah, it seems like this would be the perfect time for the Democrats to do something again but they've blown every oppurtunity to show they have leadership qualities (save for feingold)that by the time the results have come back from the focus groups, the Republicans have seized the moment again.

1. Release enough oil from the strategic reserve to stabilize them in the short term.

2. Adopt higher fuel standards on automobiles. Several years ago, Congress rejected a bill that would have raised them by a modest two mpg due to pressure from the automobile and oil industries. We have the technology to build cars that get 50 mpg, let's mandate at least 30 for cars in city driving, or 33 highway (with incentives to beat this.) Let's redefine 'hybrid' so cars that qualify for tax breaks under that definition really are hybrids, not just gas powered cars that have a never used propane switch.

3. Create a national plan whereby people who put a net amount of energy into the grid get credited with the energy they put in. Several states already have this, let's do it for the country.

4. Invest heavily in public transportation. We shouldn't just build light rail, run buses and intercity Amtraks where it is presently profitable to do so, we should do these things because it makes sense environmentally, economically and societally.

5. We should adjust our foreign policy. Be willing to meet with people like Hugo Chavez and accept the help he offers. And why piss off people in oil producing countries for one thing with our unquestioned support of feudal monarchies that their own people hate? They know our support for 'Democracy' is hypocritical at best, and sooner or later these monarchies will fall (you think oil prices are high now, imagine what they will be if there is a revolution in Saudi Arabia, if the people there still have the same view of us that they hold now.) Ratchet down the rhetoric involving Iran. We won't invade them anyway (because we can't right now), so consider that there are other ways of dealing with a nuclear armed opponent than war (i.e. the policy of constructive engagement that eventually brought down the Soviet Union without firing a shot at them.) Make the debate about 'Iranian Idol' singing pop music on TV instead of nukes, and focus people's desire for change squarely on their conservative Islamic strictures.

1. Release enough oil from the strategic reserve to stabilize them in the short term.

Why in the hell should we do this? I'm sick of Amercan's being given a buy by their government ever time gas moves into the "uncomfortable" price-range. You can build all the mass transit you want, but American's will never move to it in any meaningful way while we're busy subsidizing their consumption of fossil fuels.

For example, with the recent rise in prices, Bay Area transit ridership has ticked up 4% (BART) and 10% (San Francisco Municiple Railway), but will that hold if gas drops back down to $2.50 a gallon? No way.

So, it makes me a terrible person, but I'm sick of hearing how horrible it is that gas is $3.30/gal (Bay Area, mid-grade unleaded as of yesterday evening). It isn't horrible, it's appropriate for a commodity that there will never...ever...be any more of than exists in the ground right-f*cking-now, and that companies that pump it and refine it will do everything they can to wring the very last $ from.

It's Congress maintaining their status quo. That's why Dems do the talking head thing and spout about using this crisis for their own, personal gain. It's embarrassing to watch; and it pisses me off as much as it does you. Individual job protection is the rule of the day. No one really cares about the American people. I am sick to death of the Democratic Party. They have become nothing more than Republican lite.

I have to agre with Kvatch's remarks. Releasing oil from the strategic reserves is only a short-term fix for a finite commodity.

I hate the high gas prices too, but at least they raise the ire of Americans and get us to focus on alternatives. No pain, no gain. When gas prices are low we get complacent and our focus turns away from alternative fuels to other things. How fickle we are.

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